Taco fun!

Greg, Jerod and Alex eating their favorite tacos.
I know these pics are out of order, but the internet is going fast and the pics are actually uploading, so I figured I would do as many as I could. :o)

Annie and I at the Taco Stand

Greg took this picture as we were enjoying our favorite food, TACOS! This is a typical mexican taco stand set up outside of someone's home. We try and eat at this one at least once a month, because they are AWESOME and cheap too! Each taco is about 35 cents.

Picture of grave

This is a picture of a grave where someone left food for the spirit to eat. Notice the candle in the shape of a skull, quite interesting. They are sadly confused!

Day of the Dead

Well, yesterday was the day that they celebrate the "Day of the Dead" here in Mexico. In our village they had mass at the cemetary yesterday in the morning and then last night they returned to the cemetary to meet with the spirit of the loved one that has passed on. They brought food and waited for the spirit to return and eat with them. It is very sad for us to see how many people really believe this. One of our friends was telling us how her mom was asking to borrow money so she could buy fruit to put on the grave of her father. She doesn't have money to buy herself food and yet she somehow feels she is obligated to give her dead husband fruit. Please pray for the people in our village. Pray also for this woman, our friend said she was going to try and bring her to our meeting tonight.

The JOYS of living in Mexico!

The joys of living in another country are sometimes as great as the frustrations! Halloween came and went last night without much thought. We had plans to visit a church last night so we told the kids we would do "Halloween" today. So, we will let them dress up today and do a scavenger hunt for candy around the house, bob for apples in our kitchen and then say, "Happy Halloween!" One year Greg's mom was coming near Christmas time so we changed when we would have Christmas, since no one here celebrates like we do, it is easy to change the day to accomodate our plans. That is the JOY of living here!

I have been trying to upload some pictures but our internet does not want to do that! Sometimes it is faster than other times. So, I will keep trying to upload it throughout the day. It is a picture that will give you a good example of how dark this time really is around here.

Today is the first "Day of the Dead" in our village. I have learned more about this day through our maid. She is 18 and has been married for four years. She had a baby that died when it was about 8 months old of bronchitis. This happened about 3 years ago. The custom is to go to the grave at night and place food on the grave so that the spirit of the dead person will come back and visit with you. They will eat and enjoy fellowship with you. Tonight is the night for those who died as infants. Tomorrow they will have Mass for those who died as adults and they will ask forgiveness for the sins of those who have died. She asked me what I thought about visiting the spirit of her dead baby today. (she is a new Christian and really wants to do the right thing) I asked her if she believed her baby would come back and eat the food and visit with her. She said she didn't believe that but was confused. We talked about how after a person dies it is too late to ask forgiveness for their sins. She said the people here don't believe that babies sin very much and that is why they don't need to have a mass for children. She said she believes the spirit of her baby was in heaven. I assured her that the spirit of her baby wasn't hungry and didn't need to come here to eat! I told her I like to imagine my grandma rocking her baby in Heaven. She said she liked that idea too! So, she said she would go and pray for herself but she didn't think she needed to bring food or pray for her baby. Please pray for Rosa and Chavo today as I am sure they will be pressured to do many things that they no longer believe is necessary.

My life

Ya know, there is one thing about living in Mexico, it is NEVER dull! Two of our friends have needed to go to the doctor for awhile and didn't have the money to do so. It has now gotten to the point we felt it was time we intervened for the sake of their health. So I (Missy) made appointments for them and told them I would take them today. We had to leave about an hour and fifteen minutes early so we could arrive on time. Everything went well on the trip into town and we did some language learning on the trip. We finally arrived at the Dr.'s office and the receptionist says, "Oh, I was just trying to call you, the Dr. had to leave for a little while, can you come back in an hour?" I said, "Sure, why not?" So, we left and went to a store similar to a Wal-mart and were looking around and about ready to return to the Dr. when the receptionist calls me again. "Sorry Mrs. Wood the Dr. will not be returning today, can we reschedule?" I wanted to scream! Actually I wanted to say," Look lady, I just drove an hour to see a Dr. who wasn't even there and now I have waited another hour for you to tell me HE'S just not coming back?"How fair is that? So, we made the most of our time together and God used that time to build these relationships. I would have preferred to not have had that happen, but as the president of our company says, "That is the cost of the call!" So, we will be returning on Tuesday to try again. Please pray that this time, we will actually see the Dr!

Monday went great!

Sorry, I haven't updated you about Monday night's fellowship. It went great! I don't have the picture I took on my computer yet, but I will try and get one up soon. Jerod had complained a few weeks ago about not having many kids to do "kids church" with. We told him it wasn't about numbers but about reaching the few who did come. Usually we only have about 2 or 3. Bless his sweet heart, he does a craft with them and tells a Bible story in Spanish. He does a great job. Well, God rewarded him for this, we had a record breaking number of kids this week.... 11! He was so excited. They memorized the verse, Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I thought that was quite fitting.

Please pray for my sweet boys as they are trying to find their own ministry here in Mexico. I wanted to update you all on Anna Kate, the 18 month old who they thought had diabetes. Praise God, she does not! Continue to pray for her as they still aren't sure what if anything she does have. I love you guys! Missy